Book Review: Sy Montgomery shares ‘What the Chicken Knows’ in new mini hardcover

Why did nan chickenhearted transverse nan road

Three clucks to Sy Montgomery, who 14 years aft publishing “Birdology,” is still uncovering ways to make money disconnected nan charming stories she told successful that book astir various avian species. “What nan Chicken Knows,” subtitled “A New Appreciation of nan World’s Most Familiar Bird” was a section successful “Birdology,” but is being re-released arsenic a mini hardcover.

Readers who haven’t publication it will be, briefly, captivated. In conscionable 67 pages (16 of which are glossy colour photographs) Montgomery introduces america to her “Ladies,” nan ever-changing flock of hens she raised connected her New Hampshire workplace for decades starting successful nan 1980’s. Blending her individual experiences arsenic queen of nan coop pinch everything you’ve ever wanted to cognize astir chickenhearted behavior, it’s a nosy and informative measurement to walk an hour.

Here’s a sampling of what you’ll learn: Chickens outnumber group 4:1, they person much successful common, anatomically, pinch dinosaurs than humans, you tin message bid up to 350 different varieties of chicks, and roosters really are overmuch meaner than hens. Montgomery sprinkles successful those facts and plentifulness much arsenic she shares stories astir really her chickens behaved complete nan years and what they taught her astir “how rich | and varied their lives are, arsenic fraught and joyous and changeable arsenic our own.”

Montgomery is wary of anthropomorphizing her feathered friends, truthful while she names them, she besides tells plentifulness of stories that could beryllium rebranded for a TV show called “When Chickens Attack!” The funniest involves her minister, who makes nan correction of moving his manus down 1 of nan hens’ backs, a motion that makes them presume a unique mating crouch. Across nan yard, Alex “saw a civilized travesty, an reproach to his roosterhood: nan curate was trying to person activity pinch his hen.” The curate survives nan bloody “spurs first” onslaught to nan backmost of his calves, but learns to thin his ain flock.

“What nan Chicken Knows” joins “A Hummingbird’s Gift” and “The Hawk’s Way” arsenic standalone mini-books pulled from nan pages of “Birdology.” Each has a caller preamble by nan writer and would make bully stocking stuffers for vertebrate lovers successful anyone’s life.

___

AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews